Great AP rundown of how good samaritans used cutting-edge tech to bring voice and data to areas hit by Katrina: Of course, FEMA got in the way, even of groups connected with the military. Government and emergency coordination seems practically non-existent, as most other reports have confirmed, so these on-the-ground volunteers just went out and did what was needed to bring communications to hospitals and evacuation centers. Companies opened their warehouses--I'd heard this from other sources, too--and sent whatever was needed.
The efforts included pre-WiMax, self-healing mesh, VoIP, and satellite uplinks mostly combined with Wi-Fi on the local link. Of course, smaller groups are fleeter than bureaucracies, but there's something a little ridiculous in how quickly and easily these connections were set up. NASA apparently decided that small missions could achieve more discrete goals more readily; perhaps emergency response needs to organize into big and small cells to allow more discrete tasks to happen with less overhead.
I am getting emails and blog responses from all over on not only addressing how quickly WiFi networks can be put up after a major disasters but the actual survivability of these networks during and after hurricanes. Case in point, living in Florida, we had our fill of hurricanes last year. Writing for a blog in Muni wireless, I received a response from St. Cloud Florida who prides themselves as the first WiFi city. They reminded me that after getting hit by a hurricane last year that their WiFi network was the only communication network still up and running in the city.
It is clear that mesh and ad hoc WiFi network are the most survivable infrastructures that should be built in our coast communication networks. Sadly these are the same networks that legacy telephone company and cable company incumbents spend millions on lobbing to outlaw in states all over the nation. By the way, if you look at the dollar estimates on what it will take to rebuild the legacy telephone and cable infrastructure in New Orleans and look at building a brand new mesh WiFi network, you will find a lot of money being saved by building a brand new WiFi mesh. I wonder when we will be able to be allowed to get the best for less? We do have a considerable deficit don�t we